Chapter 684: The Barbarian Merchants’ Revolt

Due to the military’s large-scale requisition of civilian ships weighing over a thousand dan, many barbarian merchants were stranded in Yangzhou. Numerous merchants from Guangzhou also came to Yangzhou to retrieve their ships. With merchants from the Abbasid Empire, Sogdiana, Persia, and various Southeast Asian countries gathered there for over two months, the number of barbarian merchants in Yangzhou exceeded ten thousand.

These merchants mainly gathered in the northern part of Yangzhou. They had nothing to do all day long, and every tavern was filled with barbarians drinking and exchanging news. In a tavern called “Western Regions Camel” outside the northern market, nearly a hundred barbarian merchants were gathered. The tavern was noisy, with female merchants selling wine shuttling among the guests like butterflies, offering freshly delivered fine wines.

The merchants gathered in groups around tables, drinking wine while discussing news they had heard from various sources. Their hometowns and making money were always the focus of their conversations.

As time passed, anxiety and dissatisfaction built up among the merchants. Their voices grew louder as the unfairness they faced in business was unleashed by the effects of alcohol.

“Brother Basan, how could you pay three hundred guan in taxes on such a small amount of goods? I only paid one hundred guan in taxes in Guangzhou, and my goods are much more valuable than yours!”

“That’s impossible!”

A bearded man exclaimed in shock, “How could you pay only one hundred guan? Your goods are jewelry!”

These were two Sogdian merchants who did business in Baghdad. Both were from Samarkand and neighbors—Basan and Rayel. Recently, the price of silk in Baghdad had soared, so they decided to purchase goods from the Tang Dynasty. Of course, they wouldn’t come empty-handed. One bought large quantities of Egyptian cotton cloth, while the other brought lots of jewelry. Rayel, with his jewelry, went to Guangzhou, while Basan, carrying the cotton cloth, came to Yangzhou, where the price of cotton cloth was slightly higher. If everything went well, they would meet again in Baghdad upon returning to their home countries.

But something unexpected happened—both of their ships were temporarily requisitioned by the Tang military, leaving them stranded in the Tang Dynasty. Rayel learned that their ships had been sent to the Yangzhou area, so he rushed from Guangzhou. He had just arrived in Yangzhou when he met his compatriot Basan.

The conversation between the two merchants gradually attracted the attention of others. People gathered around and asked Rayel, “If you paid one hundred guan in taxes, what was the value of your goods?”

“I brought goods worth two thousand guan. When filling out the tax form at the Maritime Administration, I honestly stated two thousand guan.”

“Did they not revalue it for you?” asked a merchant with envy.
Layel shook his head. “I have the tax bill from the Arabs. I showed it to them. I don’t know if they understood it or not, but anyway, since they didn’t ask any further questions, I paid the tax at two thousand guan.”
“Are you sure you only paid a hundred guan in tax?” asked another person doubtfully.
“That’s right. It’s 20% tax, so of course I only had to pay a hundred guan.”
“By Allah! What’s going on? Why is it 10% tax in Yangzhou?”
Someone shouted, and suddenly the tavern was in an uproar. Another person cried out, “There are rules set by the imperial court—use the tax bill from the Arabs to determine the value of goods. Why does Yangzhou need to revalue it, and at such a high rate? I really haven’t made that much profit!”
“Yes! According to their valuation, it’s actually 7% tax. The tax rate is too high.”
“It’s not the tax rate that’s high; they’re just collecting taxes arbitrarily. Go argue with them!”
“Let’s go to them!”
Merchants regarded profits as their lifeblood. Excessive taxes eroded their profits. At first, they could only accept it helplessly, cursing the Tang court for being heartless for secretly raising taxes. But when they suddenly realized that in Guangzhou, under the same Tang court, the tax rate was still 20%, a sense of deceived anger arose among them.
Chaos reigned in the tavern. More than a hundred foreign merchants rushed out and headed angrily toward the Maritime Administration office.
During the mid-Tang period, customs revenues were divided into land and sea taxes. Land taxes were usually collected by border troops and often directly used for military expenses, leading to loopholes where taxes were collected repeatedly depending on the stationed troops. Therefore, after Li Qing’an took control of Anxi, he established tax offices in several major cities there, with the Anxi Administrative Office responsible for collecting taxes, prohibiting military troops from doing so.
Sea trade taxes, on the other hand, were collected by Maritime Administrators, with offices set up in Yangzhou, Mingzhou, and Guangzhou. After King Li Lin seized control of the Jiangnan region, overseas trade taxes became an important source of revenue for him. To simplify management, he abolished the Maritime Administration in Mingzhou and merged it into Yangzhou.
The Yangzhou Maritime Administration office was not far from the North Market. It was a large building with a spacious square in front. Generally, this place was only for administrative purposes; actual tax collection took place at various ports, but all taxes had to be submitted here eventually.
When the more than a hundred foreign merchants rushed to the office, they were immediately stopped by a few guards at the entrance. “This is a sensitive government area. You must not cause trouble!”
A foreign merchant who spoke fluent Chinese shouted, “Call your officials out! We have questions to ask.”

Just then, Yu Shian, the judge of the Yangzhou Maritime Administration, came out of the office. Seeing a group of foreigners making a racket outside, he stepped out and asked, “What’s going on?”
The clerk quickly replied, “Judge Yu, these foreign merchants are causing trouble.”
“Trouble?”
Yu Shian’s expression immediately darkened. “What kind of trouble?”
Seeing that this official seemed to be of high rank, the foreign merchants shouted, “What exactly is the trade tax set by the imperial court? Is it 10% or 20%?”
Yu Shian looked embarrassed. Of course he knew the rate—it was 20%. The imperial court had already issued an order, but Yang Xunwu, the head of the maritime administration, refused to change it. He insisted on collecting taxes at the 10% rate set by Li Lin and lied to the foreign merchants, claiming that the court had not yet decided to change the rate.
Yu Shian had been worried that the truth might come to light. Yang Xunwu had not recorded the extra tax money in the official accounts but kept it elsewhere. Yu Shian was well aware of Yang Xunwu’s intentions, as there was a huge discrepancy between the recorded taxes and the actual amount kept in storage. Yang Xunwu wanted to make up for this discrepancy before the imperial court conducted an official audit. If the court didn’t discover it for a long time, he could keep collecting extra taxes day by day, taking advantage of the chaos during the transition of power in the court.
Unexpectedly, these foreign merchants started making a fuss today. Yu Shian didn’t want to deal with it, so he forced himself to say, “I don’t know about this. I’ll go and ask.”
With that, he turned and hurried back into the office. Passing through the central courtyard, he saw Yang Xunwu, the head of the maritime administration. He stepped forward and said, “Sir Yang, there’s a group of foreign merchants outside causing trouble. They say we’re charging them too much in taxes. Please go and take a look!”
Yang Xunwu was tall and fat, around sixty years old. He had served as the head of the Yangzhou Maritime Administration since the eighth year of the Tianbao era, up to the present day.
Years of chaos in the imperial court had left the Jiangnan region in a state of disorder. With no oversight over local officials, they relied on their own ideals of governing the country and adhering to moral principles to restrain themselves. Some officials managed to stay honest, but many were corrupted by greed.
Yang Xunwu was one of the latter. Having held the position of head of the maritime administration for a long time, he handled large amounts of tax money. He didn’t even know exactly how much he had embezzled. But one thing was certain: over the past five years, he had not paid a single penny of tax to the imperial court. Under the pretext of logistical difficulties, he kept the tax money in underground storage, but only three million guan was there, a huge discrepancy from the five million guan recorded in the accounts. Moreover, he couldn’t alter the accounts, as they were reported to the Ministry of Revenue every year.

If the top is crooked, the bottom will be too. He is a huge corrupt official; the tax collectors below are less corrupt, but the entire system from top to bottom is rotten.
Yang Xunwu has also been very anxious these past few days. He had planned to flee to Southern Tang if things got too bad, but news has just arrived that Southern Tang has fallen, cutting off his last escape route.
Now that the Grand Canal is cleared and grain transport is about to resume, it will take at least a year to transport the three million guan of money stored in the warehouses. As long as tax collection continues, he can use new accounts to cover old debts and gradually adjust the accounts. But the problem is he is already sixty years old and has held the position of Director of the Maritime Trade Office for seven or eight years—will the court let him continue?
While preoccupied, trouble arose from the foreign merchants. Just as he was about to go out, an idea struck him: wasn’t this a golden opportunity? He waved his hand and ordered, “Ignore them! Close the main gate!”
“Sir, that might not be wise,” Yu Shian advised. “Let’s talk to them. We’re still collecting taxes according to the old laws; we’ll change them later.”
Yang Xunwu’s expression turned cold instantly. “Can you really explain that clearly? These foreigners don’t care about old or new tax laws—they want you to return their taxes. Can you do that? Judge Yu, don’t be foolish. The best way to deal with these foreigners is to ignore them. The more you explain, the more complicated things get, and you’ll only drive yourself to disaster. If you insist on going, I won’t interfere!”
With that, he snorted heavily and went back inside. Yu Shian had no choice but to sigh in frustration. If Yang Xunwu wouldn’t handle it, he certainly couldn’t.
……
The office of the Maritime Trade Office was now tightly closed, and the officials who had been at the door earlier had disappeared without a trace. But the square in front of the office was no longer filled with just over a hundred people—it was now crowded with more than a thousand foreign merchants, many more arriving from all directions. Various rumors were circulating among the crowd.
It was now clear that the court had sent orders to Yangzhou months ago, demanding that the Maritime Trade Office resume collecting taxes at the rate of 20% and base the amount on the value listed in the tax forms from the Great Tang. Yet the Yangzhou office failed to comply, continuing to collect taxes at 10% and deliberately overvaluing goods, causing huge losses to the foreign merchants.
Angry, the merchants kept shouting in the square, “Give back our taxes!” waving their tax forms, but the doors of the Maritime Trade Office remained shut, with no one coming out to respond.

Time passed from noon to afternoon, then gradually into night, yet still no officials came to address the demands of the foreign merchants. By then, over ten thousand of them had gathered in the square, their torches forming a sea of light, with countless onlookers gathered around. Shouts and curses filled the air, some drawing swords and waving them in anger as tensions reached a breaking point. Still, no officials from the Maritime Administration appeared—perhaps some wanted to come out but were intimidated by the roaring crowd. Finally, the door cracked slightly, and a low-ranking official stepped out timidly. The square instantly fell silent as over ten thousand angry eyes fixed on the frail official.

“Everyone… go back!” the official stammered. “Governor Yang has already left, and all the high officials have gone too!”

A sudden silence ensued, like the calm before a storm, but it was soon drowned out by deafening shouts and roars. “Lies! Bring them out! Now!”

Terrified by the loud noises, the official’s legs gave way, and he fled. His escape triggered an explosion of fury—the foreign merchants rushed up the steps, broke down the doors, and poured into the Maritime Administration like molten lava. They smashed everything; account books and documents were thrown into the courtyard, and thousands of taels of tax money that hadn’t yet been stored were looted…

But what the merchants wanted wasn’t just that amount—they wanted back their actual taxes, which amounted to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of taels. They eventually found the underground treasury, but sadly, it was built of massive bluestone slabs, with a huge stone door blocking the entrance, too heavy to move. Hundreds tried to pry it open with iron bars and stones, but the stone remained unmoved. Then someone set fire to the main office building, and the attic caught fire. Driven by the night wind, the flames grew larger, with thick smoke and raging fire spreading rapidly throughout the entire Maritime Administration. The merchants fled in panic, realizing they had caused a disaster. Many scattered in all directions, while those who started the fire fled Yangzhou in terror that very night.

The fire at the Maritime Administration alarmed the entire city of Yangzhou. The government offices in Jiangdu County and Yangzhou Prefecture, along with the 30,000 troops stationed there, rushed to put out the fire. Fortunately, there was a river behind the building, providing a water source. After two hours, the fire was finally extinguished. By then, most of the Maritime Administration building had been destroyed, left in ruins with charred beams still emitting smoke.

It was not until the fire was extinguished that the officials from the Municipal Maritime Administration gradually arrived at the scene. Yang Xunwu, the head of the administration, could bear the shock no longer and fainted. After being revived, he wept bitterly, crying out to the sky, “The account books are destroyed, and the treasury has been looted! How can I account to the imperial court?” Everyone felt deep sympathy for him. Soon, the magistrate of Jiangdu County brought him some excellent news: although the account books were destroyed, the treasury was intact, as its stone doors had not been opened.

Yang Xunwu rolled his eyes in despair; he could not withstand this further blow and fainted again. The scene was in chaos—first they were fighting the fire, and now they were trying to save him. At that moment, many subordinates suddenly noticed that all the officials from the Municipal Maritime Administration had arrived, except for Yu Shian, the judge.

……

Yu Shian, the judge of the Municipal Maritime Administration, left Yangzhou at dusk. He had to go; at that time, he left through the back door. He took off his official robes, put on ordinary clothes, and went to the square. By then, more than seven thousand foreign merchants had gathered there, all in a state of agitation, shouting wildly. The situation was on the verge of getting out of control. He realized how serious the problem was and understood why Yang Xunwu had allowed the foreign merchants to cause trouble—he wanted to use them to destroy the account books and the treasury, thereby destroying evidence of his corruption.

By delaying tax regulations and provoking the foreign merchants into chaos, he might at most be dismissed from office. But if his tax embezzlement were uncovered, he would lose his head. This was Yang Xunwu’s cunning.

Yet a sense of responsibility drove Yu Shian to return to the Municipal Maritime Administration through the back door. By then, Yang Xunwu had already left, so he and the last dozen or so officials placed a massive stone in place to seal the treasury. This was the strictest anti-theft measure for a treasury. To open it again, one would have to demolish the entire office building, dig a depth of ten feet, and lift the stone vault from above—a measure only used in times of war.

After sealing the treasury, Yu Shian left Yangzhou immediately and headed north along the canal. He had heard that Li Qingan was on his way to Yangzhou. Coincidentally, Yu Shian encountered Li Qingan’s bodyguards halfway. Learning that Yu Shian had an urgent matter to discuss with Li Qingan, the bodyguards took him in the direction of the military control area. They knew Li Qingan had already set out and was likely on his way to Yangzhou.

When the fire at the Municipal Maritime Administration was at its worst, Li Qingan had set up camp about forty li away from Yangzhou. He planned to return to Yangzhou the next day, but the thick smoke rising over the city and the faint flames made him suspicious. What exactly was going on in Yangzhou? He had already sent people to investigate and was waiting for their reports.

Li Qing’an paced back and forth inside the tent with his hands behind his back. He had two purposes for coming to Yangzhou this time: one was to send troops to rescue Bohai Country, which essentially meant cleaning up the officialdom in Jianghuai. The rescue mission for Bohai Country had been temporarily resolved, but he had just begun to tackle the corruption in the Jianghuai officialdom.

Now, Li Qing’an needed to find a starting point. Although corruption in Sizhou was obvious, it was after all a small and relatively northern province with little influence, far less effective than targeting larger provinces like Yangzhou, Runzhou, Suzhou, and Changzhou. Yet, there were no immediate clear-cut cases in these larger provinces. To be honest, Li Qing’an didn’t want to stir up a storm in the Jianghuai officialdom—it wouldn’t be wise. No emperor started by slaughtering everyone; even the most ruthless Zhu Yuanzhang waited several years until he was firmly in power before taking action.

Often, it wasn’t the officials’ fault but the flawed systems. When the court was in chaos and lacked oversight, if Li Qing’an were the governor, he too might feel tempted to act. He didn’t expect officials to be saints, but he did expect them to follow the rules and regulations. His goal in coming to Jianghuai was to establish a supervision system, not to punish officials for their crimes.

“General, there are witnesses arriving!” came the report from outside the tent from his bodyguards.

Li Qing’an was startled. “Witnesses? What does that mean?”

“Bring them in!”

A few bodyguards led Yu Shian, an official from the Maritime Administration, inside. As soon as Yu Shian entered, he knelt down and said, “Worthy sinner Yu Shian pleads for punishment before Prince Zhao!”

“What crimes have you committed?”

“I have accepted bribes totaling 11,000 guan. Here is my list!”

With that, Yu Shian handed over a list to Li Qing’an. Li Qing’an glanced at it and took it. There were five entries, with clear details such as time, place, amount, and the bribers. But Li Qing’an was stunned—every briber was the same person: Yang Xunwu, the head of the Yangzhou Maritime Administration. It was a case of a superior bribing a subordinate.

Li Qing’an found this very strange, but he didn’t press further right away. Instead, he asked, “Let me ask you—what happened in Yangzhou that caused such a fire?”

“Your Highness, foreign merchants in Yangzhou caused a disturbance because the Maritime Administration charged excessive taxes, and they set fire to the administration building.”